The Poway Polo Club Varsity and Junior Varsity went to the Central Coast Polo Club this past weekend to play in the Western Region Interscholastic Polo Championship. The Varsity was awarded a bye directly into the Regional Tournament. Our JV played in a Preliminary Tournament and was Runnerup to the Maui JV Team. Just a few days ago, Poway JV was contacted about playing at the Regionals since Maui JV could not attend the Tournament. Such a huge opportunity for our newer players!

On Friday, the Poway JV played their 1st game against the Lakeside Varsity. After being down 7-1 at half time: our players Maya Tantuwaya, Hannah Stock and Sydney Morris rallied to a score of 8-5 with Lakeside Varsity as the winners. Maya joined the Poway Polo Club in October. She played several years ago with her dad but had gotten out of polo for a while. Hannah came back to Poway Polo Club last year after playing with Lakeside for a time. Sydney just starting playing Polo in November. We are so proud of how well this Team did at Regionals. Sadly, 2 of our JV Players were unable to attend the Regional Tournament since it was last minute. Michael Proulx and Haley Schneider helped our Team get to the Finals at the Prelims.

Saturday was our Varsity’s 1st game. Since Lakeside Varsity beat our JV, they were were our Poway Polo opponents for a 2nd time. Maddie Graydon, Skyler Dale and Ian Schnoebelen started out the 1st chukker with a score of 9 to 1 Poway. Niki Mobtaker replaced Maddie for the rest of the game so the starting lineup could work on strategy for the Finals game. The final score was Poway Varsity 22 – Lakeside Varsity 1.

Sunday was the Finals along with the Consolation Game. Poway JV played the 1st game of the day against Maui Varsity. Maya, Sydney and Hannah tried very hard but the 3 person Maui Team was unstoppable. The final score was Maui 20- Poway JV 2. Maya scored both goals with a lot of help from the hard riding off Sydney and Hannah.

The Finals was a fast running, hard hitting game of Poway Varsity and Central Coast Polo Club/Santa Barbara. Both teams had aggressive riders and were evenly match with 2 guys and 1 girl. End of the 1st chukkers the score was tied at 2-2. In the 2nd chukker CCPC/SB was ahead of Poway Varsity 7-6 with CCPC/SB scoring a 2 pointer. But the Poway Varsity came back with vengeance in the 3rd chukker with a score of 11-9. The 4th chukker the Poway squad held CCPC/SB scoreless and ended the game with a 12-9 victory.

Ian and Skyler were both chosen to the All Star Team.Poway Varsity will now head to Cornell University on March 23-25, 2018 for the National Interscholastic Polo Championship. The last time Poway Polo Club won this tournament was in 2001 with Shane Rice, Danika Rice and Jared Sheldon.

The Poway Polo Coaches: Parker Scott and Sherry Sheldon Gibson would like to thank all of the parents for their endless hours of getting our players to practices throughout the season along with all of the work they did at our Tournaments.